The death of young musicians in the industry is more common than many would like to admit. Many artists tend to indulge in alcohol and drugs to cope with the high level of emotions, whether due to the pressure of fame or the mental health struggles that come from the heightened experiences of being famous, such as being in tabloids every other day.
Amy Winehouse and Kurt Cobain are two of the most famous examples of artists that had barely scratched the surface of their lives. The two musicians surrendered to their addiction at 27 and, unfortunately, joined the 27 Club. Known for fighting her own demons, Lana Del Rey shared in a Guardian interview that she wanted to die too after Winehouse and Cobain’s names were mentioned.
Del Rey, who made her debut in the industry with her death wish on her album ‘Born To Die,’ said, “I don’t want to have to keep doing this, but I am.” It was noted that by “this,” she had meant “everything.” “That’s just how I feel. If it weren’t that way, I wouldn’t say it. I would be scared if I knew death was coming, but…” The heaviness of the topic and the words she used to describe her feelings didn’t make it into the print.
After Del Rey’s interview with the Guardian came out, Kurt Cobain’s daughter Frances Bean didn’t hold back from responding to her words about wanting to die. Frances Bean tweeted, “The death of young musicians isn’t something to romanticize. I’ll never know my father because he died young, and it becomes a desirable feat because people like you think it’s ‘cool.’ Well, it’s fucking not. Embrace life because you only get one life. The people you mentioned wasted that life. Don’t be one of those people. You’re too talented to waste it away.”
After Frances Bean’s outburst to Del Rey over her words about death, a Del Rey fan told Frances Bean over Twitter to “leave her the f*ck alone.” Kurt Cobain’s daughter, affected by her father’s death firsthand, clarified her tweets by saying, “I’m not attacking anyone. I have no animosity toward Lana. I was trying to put things in perspective from personal experience.”
Even before Frances Bean tweeted about the interview, Del Rey had already shared her frustration and regrets about the interview and the phrasing she used to support her ‘Ultraviolence’ record in 2014. The singer blamed the Guardian reporter for misconstruing her words.
“I regret trusting The Guardian,” she wrote. “I didn’t want to do an interview, but the journalist was persistent. He was masked as a fan but was hiding sinister ambitions and angles. Maybe he’s the boring one looking for something interesting to write about.” As a response to Del Rey’s words, the Guardian editor who conducted the interview, Tim Jonze, surprisingly called her a “delightful company.”
Even though the topic didn’t come to a unanimous conclusion, the overall message of the exchanges between Lana Del Rey and Frances Bean Cobain is that everybody is struggling in their own right while also trying to push through life. It is a sensitive topic for Frances Bean since she didn’t have the chance to get to know her father, so she feels that life is precious, as everyone is on a journey.
